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“Can you read me clear now?” Gerard asks, for maybe the tenth time.
Ray nods before realizing they can’t see him. “Read you loud and clear,” he replies, watching as the picture on the screen clears up until it’s almost as good as his eyesight, never mind that his eyesight is shit.
They’ve been having some problems with the comms for a while now, ever since they landed on Terlania. Thankfully, they never lose the visuals, the little drone in the shape of a yellow bird, named Tweety after an ancient human cartoon, soldiering on through all kinds of weather and heat conditions. Ray’s pretty sure it’s because Tweety was designed by Krolans, and not humans like the comm devices were.
Even in the New World, humans are all about cutting corners—less credits spent on any device means more credit in the pockets of rich people like Ray’s bosses. He shouldn’t be too bitter though, since they are the ones funding all this.
“Beautiful, right?” Gerard asks, gesturing at Tweety to turn around and take in the landscape.
Terlania is a gorgeous planet, though not comparable much to Earth Zero Four. There’s no natural water here and humans haven’t figured out that pesky problem yet despite the constantly evolving technology, but that’s not what they are here for anyway. Terlania has already been picked over by any other kinds of scientists or scavengers one could imagine, leaving some places looking barren and shaved off.
Gerard tuts a little, shaking their head. “So sad,” they murmur, pointing at a mountain with a hole in it the size of Ray’s apartment back home, with all its five hundred stories.
“Look beside that,” Ray murmurs, a little distracted. “Those trees look gorgeous.”
Tweety has turned around again, now the lens on Gerard, so Ray misses the trees but he gets to watch Gerard’s eyes widen underneath their goggles, mouth curling up into a little smile, excited and almost childish.
It’s almost a better view.
Ray’s been working with Gerard for years now, and at first, they stuck together because they were the only two humans transferred over to the Houdlan lab, but it soon blossomed into a beautiful friendship. Of course, Gerard doesn’t know about the torch Ray’s carrying for them, but that’s neither here nor there.
“We should fly over there,” Gerard says, hands playing with their protective gloves. The sun doesn’t burn here, it’s been tested almost a hundred times, and the weather is nice enough to go without, but Ray had insisted. You never really know when it comes to strange planets. Danger might always be lurking around some unchecked corner. “After this, I mean.”
“Sure,” Ray replies. Gerard’s a tree person, but Ray likes plants more. He’s been working on his little book about all kinds of edible plants for humans on different planets where life isn’t possible for them.
Some people think it’s stupid, and he was refused grants for a long time because nobody would understand why the plants they could eat would matter on a planet where they couldn’t live. Ray doesn’t like to think of it that way. He’s in love with nature that gives in some places and destroys in others, like what he found on an Earth trial planet back in the day, food that would last humanity for decades but would wither away in any type of oxygen filled room. There’s a certain irony in it, though he only writes about that in his poetry journal and not the one he takes actual scientific notes on.
“Okay, back to the mission at hand!” Gerard sing-songs, walking over to the little hole in the ground they’ve discovered.
It’s shaped like a typical flower you would see on Earth Ancient though the actual flowers growing on it are nothing like Ray’s seen. They look more like tendrils than any other plant, and they twitch in the light.
Ray would have liked to go over himself, but he injured his leg yesterday by falling into a ditch - a stupid, human mistake - and now he has to rest if he doesn’t want to aggravate the strain. It’s a bit swollen in the ankle, where Gerard put Kelly Jel on it and wrapped it up nicely. The Kelly Jel of course worked wonders but Ray will never quite get used to the heat of it as it works on his bones from the outside in.
“Can you take lots of pictures?” Ray asks as Gerard walks close. Tweety is already documenting this whole thing but the pictures Gerard would take with their camera would come out better, sharp focused and crystal quality.
“I always take lots of pictures,” Gerard quips back. “It’s like you don’t know me at all!”
And to prove it, they squat down, looking shapeless through their layers of clothes, taking out their camera from the small backpack built into their coat.
Ray takes out his journal to note down how the tendrils react to the shutter sounds, or to the way Gerard’s shadow moves over them, shrinking in before growing to their normal heights, some of them leaning in closer while others move back as if to avoid Gerard’s presence. It all feels too sentient and he curses his leg again for preventing him from being there.
“Is that good, honey?” Gerard asks, and it takes a beat for Ray to realize they are talking to him, eyes on Tweety even though they can’t see Ray through her.
“That should be enough, yeah.” He leans in closer to squint at the screen. “Can you poke some? Not with your hands,” he warns, because that’s a lesson hard learnt. “With the rod, please.”
Gerard smiles, rolling their eyes. “I’m not going to touch strange plants ever again, Ray. I’ve sat through enough work safety conferences after that fiasco.”
Ray remembers. Thankfully it hadn’t been anything bad, but Gerard had been high for days on the strange ooze coming out of the plant, and had spent the whole time singing love songs while grinning to himself, convinced they are married to the love of their life. They wouldn’t tell Ray who that was, even after the effects wore out, and they looked embarrassed enough about the whole thing that after a while, Ray felt guilty asking.
“Can you hear that?” Gerard’s voice has gone down to a whisper. The tendrils recoil from the touch as if hurt and they keep poking some more, movements gentle. “It sounds like screaming.”
Ray frowns. “I don’t like that,” he murmurs, getting a little nervous. He knows communication is cultural and there is no way to ever determine the plants ‘screaming’ would mean anything similar to a human screaming, but humans still have their instincts for a reason, evolution not managing to take them away. “Be careful, Gee.”
“I’m not going to get hurt by poking some flowers, Ray,” they reply, crawling closer, a hand on the hard pink dirt, like they’re not even aware they are doing it. Ray can hear the screaming now, just barely. The comms devices being built inside their heads means it’s great at muffling outside noise, but sometimes it can be a nuisance too. “It’s so weird…”
Gerard takes out their camera to videotape the reaction the tendrils have to touch, and Ray watches it live from the second screen, still frowning. The noises are definitely audible in the video and there is no other way to describe it other than screaming.
“There’s a small opening here.” Gerard snaps their fingers at it, making Tweety move closer. “Maybe I could fit? Get some pictures of the roots.”
The hole looks small enough that if they were to go down, Ray’s worried they might not be able to come back out. He eyes it suspiciously. “I don’t know, Gee. We don’t even know how deep it goes.”
“It doesn’t look like a cave,” they say in reply, and Ray can hear their shrug even though he can’t see it. “Just let me…”
And before Ray can even say anything, his vision is taken over by Gerard’s back as they start crawling in.
“Gerard, no,” he bites out, sitting up straighter in his chair. “If you make me go out there to rescue you, think of how bad it will affect my recovery!”
If he can’t stop them with worry for their own well-being, maybe his own will give them pause. The past few days, all Gerard has been talking about was Ray’s recovery.
Their wiggling stops and their legs kick a little. “That’s not going to be necessary,” they reply. “I swear! And if I get stuck here, you can just send out Jammy to come get me, ‘kay? No walking for you yet.”
“Jammy would kill you in the process of the rescue, I hope you know that.” Gerard’s all the way in now, and Ray holds his breath as he waits for Tweety to follow.
It takes a beat where Ray sees only the ground, the tendrils still slithering in the background, but no Gerard, and it’s quiet too all of a sudden, making his heart skip a beat thinking the connection cut off, before he hears a quiet breath.
“Oh, Ray, you’re gonna cream your pants.”
That’s when Tweety finally goes in.
It’s not dark in the little cave-ish hole, not at all. It’s almost as bright as the outside, with little tendrils like snakes or vines on the walls, on the ground, shining neon light all around, helping Ray see it clearly as Gerard kneels on the floor to poke at it, not with the rod but with his hands.
“Gerard—” the whole place moves as the tendrils shake, moving everywhere and pulsating, and it cuts Ray off with a gasp. “What is that?”
“It’s okay!” Gerard is quick to assure as something literally crawls out of the… The dirt, like something out of those old school horror movies Gerard likes, all re-created of course because not much physical media survived the Unbecoming. “It doesn’t want to hurt me.”
“You need to get out of there right now,” Ray stresses, standing up and stumbling a little. “I’m coming over.”
“No, Ray, wait,” Gerard pleads. They reach a hand out to touch the thing as it slithers back, and Ray feels rooted on the spot, completely helpless.
“You don’t know it doesn’t want to hurt you,” he tries to explain. “It’s not… Gerard, please, just get out of there.”
Nobody has talked about this when it comes to Terlania. Sure there are some animals, some versions of fish, some beautiful squirrel-like birds that Frank back at The Office lost his mind over—but nothing about this.
Ray, accepting that Gerard isn’t going to listen to him at all, leans in closer with his palms on the table to get a closer look. Everything in the cave space looks connected in a strange way, like body parts moving together. Each little shift echoes over to the other tendrils, all of them moving in sync, as the thing that crawled out of the ground, looking much more like a tentacle than the other ones, and thicker in size too, moves in place to circle around Gerard.
“Gerard.” Ray’s voice sounds like a choke.
“Heh,” Gerard chuckles a little nervously, shifting in place to keep his eyes on the tentacle sizing him up like a predator. “It doesn’t have eyes,” they observe, and then everything happens too quick.
The tentacle strikes forward, wrapping around Gerard’s outstretched hand to slither up their arm, dangerously close to Gerard’s face before wrapping around their neck. Ray doesn’t even have time to gasp before Gerard’s hand shoots up, trying to grab the thing, and the ground underneath them shakes and vibrates as more of those creatures crawl out, all of them locking onto Gerard like heat seeking missiles.
“No, no!” Ray chants helplessly, aware that he should be doing something, but also unable to look away from the scene, like if he looks away, it might just get worse.
Gerard makes a little noise like a choke, struggling even more as the tendrils wrap around. “It’s okay!” They yell, and it takes a beat for Ray to realize they are talking to the thing. “It’s okay, woah—wait!” They giggle as something brushes against the sides of their torso, like it’s fun.
“Gerard, I’m coming over there right now.”
“No, don’t!” Gerard yells, this time to Ray. “You need to… Stars, you need to go on the emergency line, okay?”
“Is that thing choking you?” Ray asks, voice all high pitched in a way that sounds strange to himself. In a distant way, he notices that he’s sweating through his shirt.
“Ray, are you listening to me?” Gerard asks, voice too calm for the predicament they are in. “We don’t need you coming over here and getting trapped and eaten too. We don’t know what this thing is, okay? You need to get actual help.”
“Eaten?” Ray repeats, blinking stupidly. His ankle aches in little throbs, his weight too much on it. “Gerard, I don’t… Sun above, I don’t know what to do!”
“It’s not eating me,” Gerard says, looking towards Tweety. “It’s… okay. It’s fine. Just… Maybe call the emergency line? That seems like a good start right?”
“Yeah, yes,” Ray replies, looking around for the little comm device. “Okay, I’ll do it right now.”
He doesn’t look away from the screen as he does it, and everything tunes into the background as he talks to the person on line, not even aware of what he is saying. He’s sure that he is not making much sense, but he manages to communicate the urgency at least. He makes sure to give the coordinates too, but they say that they can just make it over to the ship.
It takes him a second to realize that that means he has to stay here and wait for them so he can lead them to where Gerard is. In a cave being slowly squeezed to death by a tentacle creature.
Gerard’s gone quiet and still, and the video on the screen looks more like a picture because nothing is moving now. Not even the creature itself. The tendrils still pulsate but it’s gentle now, like breathing.
“Okay,” Ray says. “Okay, I called. They’ll be here soon… Gods, Gerard, is it hurting you?”
“No,” Gerard replies. “It doesn’t mean harm, Ray. It’s okay. It’s just… curious.”
“How can you even know that?” Ray has to wipe the sweat on his forehead on his arm but some still goes down to his eyebrows, dangerously close to getting into his eyes. “Stars, so stupid… I shouldn’t have let you do this alone. We should have waited—”
“I can tell because I’m here,” Gerard cuts him off. “I can… Feel it.”
Ray’s mouth shuts with a clank. “Like telepathy?”
“No,” Gerard replies, voice contemplative. They wriggle a little in place, trying to reach something. “Stars, if I could just get my notebook…”
The tendrils let them move this time at least, not squeezing tighter anymore, and Ray focuses on taking deep breaths. “Please just stay still until we can come get you,” he begs, his tone pleading. “You don’t want to aggravate it, you don’t know what might!”
Both of them freeze when a tentacle reaches towards Gerard’s back, digging into their little bag. When it manages to make Gerard’s little notebook spill out, Gerard reaches for it, not quite making it.
“Stars,” Ray curses, watching the way the tendril moves the notebook closer by nudging it until Gerard’s fingers manage to grab on. “Gerard…”
“I told you,” Gerard says, a grin on their face. “We understand each other.”
Looking at the way they are still half restrained and being squeezed tight, Ray can’t believe that’s quite true. A tendril moves right in front of Tweety, making Ray flinch.
“Sit back down, okay?” Gerard says, like they can see Ray. “You don’t want to axe your recovery.”
That makes some kind of hysterical laughter bubble out of Ray, in a way he can’t control, until his eyes are streaming and his nose runs. “Please don’t get eaten,” he chokes out, his hands shaking when he wipes at his cheeks.
Gerard laughs along, little noises breaking the sound as the tendrils move over his body again, this time looking almost… gentle. Inquisitive. Either they are both experiencing mass hysteria or the creature might actually not mean harm. Like a startled animal, not too dangerous unless Gerard does a wrong move.
Ray’s still stuck up on the part where they don’t know what a wrong move is, though. He’s not going to be able to relax as easily as Gerard did. He wonders what it is that they can feel exactly, what the creature is feeding them. Not quite like telepathy, but something. Maybe this is how the creature feeds, by making its subjects feel at ease for better consumption. It wouldn’t be the first time Ray’s seen that—hell, it’s how Pouliejens are so good in bed.
“It likes that,” Gerard mumbles, sounding almost reverent. “The… I think it can sense feelings.”
They start wiggling again, trying to get their left arm underneath their notebook so they can write. “So it knows what scares you. It knows what it’s like when you’re happy.” Ray follows along, trying to think. “Which one do you think it prefers?”
“If I get scared again, I guess we’ll know.” Gerard shrugs, the movement a little muffled by the tentacle grabbing near their face.
Ray watches as it moves, going over to Gerard’s face and moving over it, thankfully without lingering. It takes Gerard’s goggles along with it as it goes, and another tendril grabs it, slithering over it in various angles in the air. The other tentacle comes back down, moving wetly over Gerard’s eyes, and Ray can see the suckers it has on its skin, the shine of dampness on the scale like flesh.
Gerard freezes, and Ray can hear them hold their breath. The cave pulsates, flashing neon blue-green-white, this color that Ray’s sure they don’t have a name for, and everything stops moving at the same time.
For one moment that makes bile come up to Ray’s mouth, Gerard is completely quiet. Then, a shaky breath. “It’s okay,” they say. They move their head back gently, and the tentacles let them do it. “Okay. Okay.”
“Gerard?” Ray checks in. His voice is shaky.
“It’s alright,” they assure him. “Just… Suction on my eyes scared me. But now I know. It doesn’t like it when I’m scared!” Ray is going to murder them because of how delighted they sound about it. After he saves their life, of course.
“You’re… I don’t… Gerard, please don’t get eaten.”
The tendrils pulsate, the light going brownish and warm. A pregnant pause. Gerard’s looking at Tweety again, as if they can see Ray through it. “You said that already,” they joke, but they sound a little off. “It… It likes that.”
“What?” Ray asks, trying not to faint on his chair right then and there as a tentacle briefly rubs over Gerard’s lips. “Concern?”
“Whatever I feel for you,” Gerard replies, which is so vague that it makes Ray’s head spin. The tendrils on the wall slither, trembling in a way. “Woah—that’s really… Stars, that’s weird.”
Their hand starts moving, finally able to take notes with all these tentacles wrapped around them like it’s nothing. They murmur as they do it. “It echoes it back. To me, I mean. My… Feelings. Like feeding them to me, y’know? Like, how mother birds used to eat things and chew them up for their babies. Does that make sense?”
“I think so,” Ray replies, breathless from the way Gerard sounds, like they’ve found something truly wonderful. “It’s… Is it good?”
“It feels like… Like when you can feel something just because you’re imagining it too hard. How do I say that in a scientific way?” A little giggle. “Gods, I can’t think.”
Ray starts getting flashbacks to Gerard high on a hospital bed, and his stomach churns uncomfortably. “Is it psychedelics?
“No,” Gerard is quick to reply. “Nothing like that. Trust me. It’s okay, Ray. Just weird.”
“We don’t know that,” Ray bites out, trying to stay calm through all of it. Gerard doesn’t need him to be freaking out on top of everything else.
That actually is what manages him to finally stop shaking in the end. He needs to be the calm voice of reason in this. If in some way Gerard is being manipulated into thinking everything is okay, it’s Ray’s job to watch over and make sure it is, and warn them calmly about dangers. He doesn’t need to freak them out even more by screaming in their head.
“Okay,” Gerard mumbles. “Get your journal out and start taking notes, okay? In case I lose mine.”
Ray doesn’t want to consider the possibility of Gerard somehow having to make a hasty retreat, all their things left behind; or worse, a scenario where Gerard doesn’t get to leave.”On it,” he replies.
It makes everything somewhat easier, to look at it from a scientist's perspective and not a guy who is watching the love of their life in grave danger. He takes note after note, eyes shifting between the pages and the screen, still watching as the tentacles move, calm now that Gerard is too.
He starts by detailing how everything started, noting down picture and video codes for reference, and then gets into how everything happened at first, trying not to talk too much about how he warned Gerard not to do this. He tries to keep it objective and true, not leaving room for feelings. That’s for his poetry journal, which will have rich material coming after all this.
A tentacle has made its way inside Gerard’s sleeve, even though it was strapped down, in line with all the safety measures Ray forced Gerard to follow, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much, just moving gently like a caress.
Gerard doesn’t even seem to notice, bottom lip trapped inside their mouth as their hand moves. “There we go,” they say in the end, reading over the last line they wrote. “Okay.”
“Maybe… Nevermind.”
“What? No, tell me,” Gerard insists, shifting a little in place.
“Maybe I could come over now, since we know it’s not dangerous.” Ray says, feeling stupid as he speaks.
“No, you shouldn’t,” Gerard replies, but they are smiling. “Don’t worry, you’re not missing out on all the fun. You can take my place after I get out of here, ‘kay?”
“Is it fun?” Ray can’t help but ask. “You don’t look too scared.”
Gerard takes a moment to reply. “It’s like… It’s different when you’re here with it. I feel like I know… I know what it feels when it touches me.”
Ray swallows with some difficulty. Gerard continues, “it was scared of me too. At first.”
“And now it’s petting you.”
That’s the only way to describe it really. One tentacle keeps moving in Gerard’s hair, petting it back from their forehead and managing to get it wet enough that it sticks that way. The one on their wrist is still caressing, without stop, getting higher and higher with it as more skin is revealed. The others are all over the place, trying to find their own parts to slither over.
“Yep,” Gerard replies. “And it’s good at it too! This thing would be great at giving a massage, Ray.”
Gerard reaches out to rub gently over the one tentacle, and Ray can see even through the screen that their touch is feather light. Still, the tendrils react as if it was a bomb, thrumming and flashing.
Somehow, even Ray can tell it’s not in a dangerous way. More like… More like the creature is purring.
Gerard giggles, delighted, and their hands get braver, petting the tentacle like it’s a cat, one of the few animals that managed to make the transfer to the stars along with Humans Ancient back in the day.
“No!” Gerard says all of a sudden, and everything comes into sharp focus as things start moving again. “No, don’t—stop that!”
The tentacles, writhing in place, actually listen, as the tendrils flinch back. Ray gasps a breath, his heart skipping a few beats. “What is it? What happened?”
“Nothing!” Gerard says quickly, but Ray can see their face pale with the help of the lights from the cave walls. “Nothing.”
“Tell me,” Ray pleads, and in a truly desperate attempt, adds, “I’ll note it down.” Gerard has dropped their notebook in the brief struggle when they started yelling.
Gerard sighs, rolling their shoulders to relax a little. “It was trying to… Um. Stars, I don’t know how to say it.” At least they are smiling again, though it’s a bit embarrassed. “It moved over my penis,” they say, just like that. “And then started… applying pressure.”
Ray finds that he is actually speechless. Gerard takes that opportunity to continue. “It stopped though! I think I got angry, not quite afraid? And it really doesn’t like anger. Did you see the way it flinched? Maybe… It sounds crazy but maybe it’s part of a pack system.”
“I’m sorry, the thing was trying to… rub you?”
So, maybe Ray’s a little stuck on that. It leaves him nauseous though. The thing could try something else, something even more harmful, and Gerard might not be able to stop it in time. Like, what if the creature decides to find out what Gerard’s mouth tastes like and ends up choking them in the process?
“Not like that!” Gerard defends. “It… Well, it’s not like it knew that’s my genitals. It just… I guess I—my body—reacted to the touch? Stars, Ray, don’t make me spell it out.”
Ray’s both pale and flushed at the same time, stomach churning and filled with butterflies. Gerard waves a hand. “Anyway, it's natural for it to get curious,” they explain, like it’s just a regular Clickday.
At that moment, the comm device rings and Ray picks it up without looking away from Gerard who’s relaxed again and gone back to petting the creature. It’s an automated message and Ray listens and nods along, humming as if another person is on the line.
“ETA 60 clicks,” he informs Gerard afterwards, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“I’m starting to feel a little embarrassed now,” Gerard replies, chuckling. “I mean… I don’t think I’m in danger.”
Ray takes a deep breath and tries to be rational. “That might be the case but the emergency line is there for anything unexpected, not just hostile terrain.”
“I guess so,” Gerard says, a little distracted. They tilt their head to the side. “Oh… It’s hungry.”
Ray blinks and blinks. “It’s hungry?” All he can do is repeat it. He’s not stupid. He’s a lighted scientist. And yet he feels out of his depth. “What… What does it eat?”
He prays to the stars that it’s not meat of any kind. Or anything that Gerard’s body produces. But of course they’re not lucky like that.
“Oh!” Gerard perks up, giggling. “It wants me to be happy! Ray, this thing eats happiness!”
Ray very quickly makes a note of that. “How much does it eat? It could do harm if… Like, serotonin poisoning.”
The tendrils pulsate as Gerard lays down just a little, one tentacle supporting their back as others move over their midriff, over their ankles. It makes them laugh helplessly. “Gerard, please tell me you haven’t found a tickle monster.”
“No—hah—I don’t think so?” They reply, out of breath from laughter as one tentacle manages to make it’s way inside their boot, probably slithering all the way down even though Ray can’t see it. “Tickling isn’t—Earth on a stick, that tickles! But it’s not even true happiness anyway, right?”
“You are releasing endorphins,” Ray reminds them. “But once it gets too much, your body is going to have a stress response.”
“It won’t like that.” Gerard hums, raising their legs a little and putting one hand on their crotch protectively. “Stars, it’s like obsessed.”
The tentacles all quiver as if in agreement. “Oh.” Gerard breathes out, and then goes completely silent.
“What is it?” Ray asks, journal out and ready. He is better at finding solutions to problems when he is trying to think rationally the way a scientist should. “Gerard?”
“Um, don’t freak out,” Gerard replies after a beat, turning to face Tweety again. “I swear I don’t think it’s going to harm me, but there is no good way to say this.”
Ray watches a flush take over their face, the lights in the cave glowing a gentle gray. “Just… Just tell me.” The way Gerard’s acting is just freaking out Ray more.
“It does feed on hormones,” Gerard repeats. “Just not… Happiness.”
Ray goes through the worst options inside his head. Cortisol, adrenalin; maybe the thing wants to eat all the dopamine Gerard can come up with before leaving him high and dry—
“Oxytocin?” Gerard says, but it sounds more like a question. “I’m sure it’s not like, truly the case. An alien plant in space eating earth-based human arousal hormones is really far-fetched. But I think it’s the closest thing my body can produce to what it wants.”
A pregnant pause. Ray’s tongue feels thick and heavy in his throat. He looks at the clock and tries to stop his breaths from picking up speed. “60 clicks… They’ll be… We just have to… It’ll be fine.”
He doesn’t sound as calm about it as he would have liked to. Gerard laughs a little awkwardly, a hand still on their… crotch, as a tentacle slithers around it.
“It’s not going to hurt me,” they repeat. “It hates it when I’m sad. And… it would make me sad… if it was… hurting me.”
“Raping you, you mean?” Ray asks, and saying it out loud like that makes it so much more real. His bottom lip quivers and he bites down on it. “I could come over there. We have the Red Beam.”
“No,” Gerard says instantly. “We don’t… Stars, Ray, we don’t do that.”
The Red Beam is a weapon that Ray and Gerard have never used before, no matter the situation. Some explorers are trigger happy, using it whenever they can, killing without remorse, but when they first started all this, Gerard and Ray made a promise to never pick it up, because if something manages to attack them while they are in the process of exploring its natural habitat, well that’s just self-defense isn’t it? Ray and Gerard aren’t meant to be here. Gerard wasn’t supposed to get too close to the tendrils like this. In the end, they are the ones overstepping boundaries.
But still. “It’s… This might be life and death, Gerard, sun above—I’m not going to just sit back and watch as it hurts you.”
“I’ve told you that it’s not going to hurt me,” Gerard stresses. “I actually feel a little bad.”
“You feel bad?”
Gerard nods a little, looking around the little cave. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be here. It’s not meant to live alone like this. I was right about the packs, I think. I’m sure they have systems in place to feed on each other. Like those tree roots back on Earth Zero Two.”
A tendril, very close, gets around Gerard’s coat zipper and slithers through the little hole, getting a good grip before it moves down, unzipping the heavy material. “Uh oh,” Gerard says, still smiling.
“That’s not… Is it going to keep trying?” Ray doesn’t know what to do with his hands so he starts taking down notes packs, feed on each other, oxytocin?
“It doesn’t understand that I want it to stop unless I get scared or angry,” Gerard explains. “I’m guessing it’s going to try until I feel strongly about it.”
“Maybe you should start feeling angry, then,” Ray replies, voice tight.
Gerard chuckles, a little awkward. “I can’t just fake it, Ray. It tastes everything I feel.” A beat. “It might be… My fault. I think when I was petting it… I touched something I shouldn’t have?”
“No.” Ray exhales out slowly. “You didn’t…”
“I didn’t know!” Gerard defends themself. “I wasn’t trying to… stimulate it!”
The lights flash again as one tentacle goes up to Gerard’s chest, moving across where their nipples probably are underneath their form fitting shirt, made of light but strong material. It looks a bit like preening, the way the tendrils move in place, with something that can’t be anything but excitement.
Gerard, the crazy person he is, doesn’t even complain as the tentacle locks onto their nipple from outside the fabric. Just arches their back a little to give it more room, as if they want it to keep doing it.
“That’s not good,” Gerard mumbles, voice gone a little low in a way that makes Ray shudder. He can barely hear a thrumming through the comms device. “Oh, stars… You have to delete this video, okay? I know that makes me a bad scientist, but… Sun above!”
Their head goes back, showing the long column of their throat, and one tentacle takes that opportunity to land on their Adam's apple, suckers placed all around the pale flesh.
“You need to… Get angry soon,” Ray mumbles, his knees going weak.
Gerard laughs, a little hysterical. “I can’t,” they take a deep breath, eyelashes fluttering. Ray watches the tentacle on their chest pulsate. “It can tell I like it…”
Their hand moves on their crotch, rubbing down in a dirty way that makes Ray go hot all over just watching it.
The tentacles move, the whole cave flashing bright for a second as the creature grabs and manipulates Gerard so that they are hanging in the air, head towards the ground as they are grabbed by the ankles and arms, one tentacle under their back helping to support their weight.
“Wait,” Gerard chokes out, hands and legs held out to the sides, trying to crane their neck up to look, and a tentacle is quick to support their neck too, eager to help. “Ray--”
The tentacles stop moving, holding but not touching intentionally anymore, and Ray watches as Gerard pants, a little out of breath. One tendril, pulsating, moves close to their face, hovering above it as if it can see Gerard’s expression. It moves gently over to their hair, petting.
“Gerard…” Ray whispers, looking at the clock to see how far away help is. “I’m sorry—stars, I’m… I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay,” Gerard replies, swallowing. Ray can see their bulge under their pants, a tentacle over it, still and waiting. “It stopped as soon as it scared me.”
“It’s not stopping, though,” Ray argues. “It’s just waiting you out.”
The tentacle on their crotch moves to the zipper of their pants, looking unsure, moving slow enough that Gerard could buck up and get it off, if they could even move that way when hovering all the way in the air with nothing but the tentacles holding them up.
“It’s hungry,” Gerard mumbles. “It’s okay,” they whisper, as if talking to the creature. “It’s… okay. I want to help.”
“Stars, Gerard, you’ve lost it.” Ray sounds maybe harsher than he intends but Gerard doesn’t seem to mind, just chuckling as if in agreement.
The tentacle grabs on to the zipper, sucking it in as they move it down and down, revealing the underwear Gerard’s wearing underneath. Some tendrils come over to help, one taking care of the button as another untucks Gerard’s shirt and pushes it up, revealing the pale skin of their soft belly and getting distracted by moving all over it as soon as it can.
“Ray, maybe… Ugh, does this count as rape?”
Ray’s mouth dries up because he knows Gerard’s asking if they are raping the creature. “What… No? Gerard this isn’t… How are you okay with this?”
“Because I want to help, Ray, I told you,” they reply. “It won’t… It’s so hungry.” The way they say it, dragging out the word as a tendril slithers over their bellybutton, digging in just a little, makes sweat break out on the back of Ray’s neck.
Their pants go down to their knees, pushed along by countless tendrils, and the cave is thrumming steadily now, flashing all kinds of colors that make Ray’s eyes hurt. “Okay… Fuck it. I don’t think it’s rape considering you are the… the one restrained and unable to leave.”
The curse hangs heavy in the air, the ancient human word that Gerard likes to repeat when they watch those old time movies.
“Fuck it,” Gerard parrots, raising their hips just a little as a tentacle grabs the waistband of their underwear. Ray can see the way they are straining against the fabric. “Fucking fuck it, right?”
It’s obscene, the way the fabric moves down and down, so slow, before their cock breaks through, the head slapping against their stomach. Another tentacle has managed to free them of their coat completely, their shirt pushed up all the way to their shoulders and bunched up.
“Sun above,” Ray murmurs, feeling his body go all hot, all cold, in the span of a second. “Gerard…”
“Sorry,” Gerard says, sounding embarrassed and voice tight. “Sorry, Ray, I can’t believe you’re watching this.”
The tendrils writhe, and a tentacle caresses Gerard’s cheek until their eyes fall shut. Embarrassement, the creature doesn’t like.
“I can look away,” Ray offers, and it surprises him that it's the first time this thought is occurring. “No, Gerard I’m sorry. If you want me to leave…”
“No, don’t go,” Gerard replies, too quick. “I’m not… Okay, I’m not scared but I don’t want to be alone either. Heh. Unless… Unless you don’t want to watch?”
“I want to watch,” Ray shoots back, before feeling his cheeks go red. “I mean, I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“Okay, then,” Gerard replies. “Here we go.”
As if it understands, the tentacle finally moves over to their dick, suckers on the flesh in a single line from their balls all the way to the head, wrapping around it and locking on.
“Gods!” Gerard yells out, shaking their head a little, hair moving from side to side. “Oh, it’s… Ray, it’s echoing it back to me—you need to—”
“It’s… Gerard, it’s trying to feed you in turn,” Ray says, saying what they are too distracted to say. “Stars, I’ll… note it down.”
He writes it in his journal without even looking, eyes glued to the screen so he can watch the way Gerard pants and arches their back as the tentacle wrapped around their cock strokes down, squeezing tight, before moving back up to suck on the head.
The tendrils on the wall have gone crazy, all of them shifting in place like a little dance, and the whole cave has come to life, like a ritual of some sorts. Ray tries to put that down on paper too but he’s sure his handwriting is unreadable, palms sweaty and pen sliding from his hand.
It goes clattering to the ground and he doesn’t even bother to pick it back up, knowing that there is no way he is ever looking away from Gerard. He moves the chair closer to the table until his stomach is pressed up against it, eyes unblinking as he stares.
Three tendrils are moving over Gerard’s balls, just caressing and gently rubbing them, as others move all over their now uncovered nipples, hard as bullets. Ray can’t decide where to look at all, eyes flickering over all of them, but the tentacle on Gerard’s cock always pulls his eyes like a magnet.
It’s moving so gently, almost hypnotizing in the way it moves down, down, before twisting around as it comes back up, and any time it wraps around the tip and puts it’s sucker over it, Gerard yells out, their eyes squeezing shut.
“You like it,” Ray observes without meaning too, his voice all but a whisper. “Sun above, Gerard, you really like it.”
Gerard nods, jerky, and Ray can make out the flush on their face, all the way down to their neck before disappearing under their bunched up shirt. “It’s so good,” they mumble, voice gone all honey thick. “Stars, I wish you were here—”
They are pumping their hips up as much as they can, with the help of the tentacle under their lower back, and their eyes keep fluttering shut as they whine lowly, but so loud in Ray’s ears.
“Tell me,” Ray says. “Not for the notes… Just—just tell me, please.”
Gerard makes a small noise, something between a moan and a groan. “I can feel how much—how much it likes it,” they start to explain, looking down at the tentacle moving over their cock. “And how much I like it.”
A tendril makes it over to their taint, rubbing down over it and making them cry out. “Like… Like it’s amplified. I can taste my own arousal, Ray.”
The tentacles move them in place, pushing their thighs up for a little more room, and one of them is caressing the insides of their legs, sucking on the skin wetly and leaving a little shine behind it as it goes down.
Gerard struggles against the hold on their arms just a little before giving up and letting their head fall back, mouth open and tongue out. A tentacles briefly caresses their lips, dipping inside their mouth and moving back out.
“It could be toxic!” Ray warns, almost a yell. The tentacles freeze in place, and for a second Ray thought they heard him.
The one inside Gerard’s mouth moves out, and pats their cheek, like an apology. Gerard chuckles breathlessly. “Yeah, I thought of that too.” Their voice is so tight, and the tentacles are still unmoving but they pump their hips up for some friction, pleading. “It’s getting better at understanding,” they comment. “It knows as soon as I get worried—it can taste me so much better now.”
Ray maybe should be writing that down too but he’s too busy white-knuckle gripping the armrests of the chair. He nods along dumbly, blinking against the sweat on his brows.
“Woah!” Gerard says, squirming a little. Ray can’t see from the angle, their leg blocking Tweety’s vision, but he knows that something just moved against their asshole. “Oh, man…”
The tentacles don’t stop, even though they do slow down a little, and the cave flashes beautifully. Gerard’s not scared or worried at all about how they are about to get fucked by a tentacle creature in a planet they set foot on a week ago, all the while Ray is watching with his mouth open and breaths harsh against the comms device.
“Don’t—don’t judge me for this,” Gerard says, and they sound a little worried about that.
“I would… Gerard, I would never,” Ray tries to assure, trying to get Tweety to move a little to the side so he can see.
“No, because—because I’m about to cum.” They throw their head back and moan, gasping for air, and Ray’s hand freezes on the stick wheel, watching as their ejaculate shoots up, not getting far before a sucker places itself on the head firmly, sucking it all down.
Gerard’s back arches, voice taking on a high-pitched tint as they writhe in place as best as they can. The cave moves with them, the tendrils mirroring the movement as they thrum like a bassline, thump, thump, thump—
“Oh, sun above,” Gerard chokes out, opening their legs wider and pulling them up higher with the help of the tentacles, and Ray can see now, their hole with the tendril moving in and out of it, all these shallow thrusts that Ray can almost feel inside his own ass. “Yes, yes, yes—”
Gerard has stopped cumming by now, they must have, but the tentacle on the tip of their cock which is flushed a desperate red doesn’t stop sucking on it, pulsating constantly, and it must be driving them insane, the overstimulation.
A tendril squeezes on their balls, as if to help more ejaculate come out, and Gerard chokes on the air they are breathing, a guttural moan breaking free of their chest.
Ray can’t see it as they come a second time but he knows it happened by the way their chest rises up, back arching even more as they shudder, thighs quivering, like something out of an exorcism movie.
“Sun rays on Earth!” They choke out, shivering and blinking against the ceiling of the cave, a little bit of drool running down the corner of their lips before they close their mouth and swallow.
They shiver and shiver before the tentacle finally moves, going down to the base of the shaft and wrapping around it, preventing them from going soft. The tendrils in their ass move out so a tentacle can make its way in there, making them go taut in the air as it pushes in.
“Gods,” Ray murmurs, realizing he’s been humping the air this whole time, like a teenager watching their first porno. “Gods, Gerard…”
The tentacle pushes in gently until their rim gives and it slips inside, not like a cock at all where it’s thicker around the head. It thrusts in easy until about the midway point of the curled piece, where it gets so much thicker, and Gerard is making these small noises, like whines or a hurt animal—no, Ray thinks. A hungry animal.
“Yeah,” Gerard mumbles, “yeah, yeah…”
They wiggle down on the tentacle in their ass, their nipples so hard that it looks like they could cut diamonds any time the tendrils move off of them, not giving Gerard much time to breathe before they go back to their pulsating movement.
Ray doesn’t blink as he watches the tentacle move in further, thicker than Ray’s cock at that point, thicker than any cock he has seen before, and Gerard’s hole just swallows it down hungrily, opening up impossible wider around the appendage and moaning with it like it’s the best thing they’ve ever felt.
For a second, Ray is worried-excited-worried that the tentacle won’t stop until Gerard’s completely impaled on it, but thankfully, the moment Gerard makes a noise of actual pain, it freezes in place, another tendril petting Gerard’s leg in apology.
Ray can’t believe how deep it went before it stopped, so huge and thick inside Gerard that it must be pushing against their organs. Gerard doesn’t seem to mind at all though, looking a little out of it with their head hanging low on the tentacle supporting it, tongue lolling out and eyes half-lidded.
“Gerard?” Ray checks in, wiping his sweaty palm on his thighs without getting close to his dick straining against his zipper. Stars, it hurts, now that he is aware of it. He’s so hard that his dick throbs along with his heartbeat, wet at the tip and making him shiver when he shifts in place so it’s not directly pushing against the zipper. “Gee?”
“I’m okay,” Gerard replies, words slow and a little slurred. “The… It’s feeding me so much satisfaction… Making me drowsy.”
“Okay, okay,” Ray mumbles, shifting on the chair and groaning with it.
Gerard lifts their head up, eyes locking in on Tweety hovering close by. The tentacle is just gently resting inside their ass now, unmoving, like it’s letting Gerard get used to the impossible thickness, as the tendrils pulse gently all around the cave.
“Ray,” they say, licking their lips. “Are you… Are you hard?”
As soon as the question is out of their mouth, their eyes fall shut again as the tentacle on the base of their cock trembles.
“I…” Ray has no idea how to reply. He is not going to lie, but he doesn’t know how to confirm what Gerard can probably guess. “I don’t…”
“It’s okay,” Gerard is quick to assure, forcing their eyes open again and squinting like they can actually see Ray through the small lens of the drone. “I want—heh—I want you to be hard.”
The lights flash white, thrumming, and Gerard chuckles. “See? It knows too.”
“Stars, Gerard,” Ray chokes out. “Yes, I’m hard.”
“Good,” Gerard says, nodding. They look like they are going to say something more but the tentacle in their ass finally starts moving, pulling back only half-way before thrusting in again, deep enough to shake them in the air. “Oh—so good—sun above, Ray!”
The tentacle thrusts unhurriedly, like it has all the time in the world, not like anyone who would be getting impatient and start moving faster—the creature wants whatever makes Gerard feel good, and that turns out to be slow, deep thrusts.
Each one makes Gerard moan, voice close to a wail as they get knocked a little upwards with the force of it until the tentacles tighten on their body. That makes them sob, writhing in place as best they can, face scrunched up in pleasure.
Their pants are around their ankles now, along with their underwear, and a little deliriously, Ray’s surprised they still have their gloves on. The gloves Ray made them put on for protection, now on their hands clenching uselessly as they get fucked within an inch of their life by a plant.
Ray’s always been a plant guy but this is taking things to another level as he finally caves in and opens up his pants, not bothering with pulling the zipper down, letting it fall open by the force of his hands as he pushes them down his thighs.
“Gerard,” he chokes out, taking his dick out of his underwear, hot and throbbing in his hands, precum like drool on the tip, sticking to his thumb as he grabs himself. “I’m… I’m so hard…”
Gerard wails, trying to move on the tentacle in their hole, mouth opening and closing like a fish as they try to say something. “Are you—sun above—are you? Are you touching yourself?”
Ray rubs the inside of his palm on his cock, shuddering with how good it feels, the neglected head of his cock flushed purple and leaking. “Yeah,” he replies, “yes, yes, I am.”
It feels like he could blow with one good stroke but he tries to hold it, to hold on, squeezing around the base a little before he strokes up, thumb circling underneath the head in a way that makes his eyes almost fall shut.
Gerard’s cock jumps, the tentacle at the base vibrating with excitement, and it slithers all around the shaft until they are wrapped completely inside, only the head peeking through, precum glistening there like a pearl, undisturbed.
The tendrils are sucking on their nipples, making Gerard cry out each time they linger a little too long, and Gerard’s breaths are chopped and desperate.
Ray flicks his wrist a little and moans, feeling his balls throb. “Yes,” Gerard hisses out, “Ray, let me hear you, please—”
The tentacle picks up the speed in their ass, pulling back further before slamming back in, making their breaths cut off in the middle, their eyes wet and shiny each time the light reflects on them.
“I can’t believe,” Ray mumbles. “I don’t… Fuck—”
The cave thrums and thrums, and even when Ray’s eyelids fall shut, Ray can still see it. He can hear it too, like a song, like a hymn he listened to once, some tape recovered from Earth Ancient that Gerard played after a long day of working, both of them nursing their wines along with white fish replicates on their plates.
“Gods,” Ray chokes out, “Gerard…”
“I’m so close,” Gerard mumbles in reply, grunting with the effort of their writhing. Their chest is pushed up towards the sky, their back arched and thighs trembling as their cock leaks like a faucet, being slurped up by the tentacle there that moves up to sip at the head of their cock every few seconds. “Feels… Feels unreal, Ray—feels so good.”
Ray’s hand picks up speed, unintentionally mirroring the tentacles deep, slow-but-faster-now thrusts, and he is burning from the inside out. Something on the screen pings letting him know that the ETA is 30 clicks now, and it almost makes him laugh.
“Ah!” Gerard yells out, jaw clenching tight as they throw their head back, hair spilling down, some strands stuck to their cheeks, their neck. “Ah, ah, ah—”
Ray comes at the same time they do, watching a tendril caress Gerard’s jaw as they sob out with their breaths, the tentacle on their cock sucking on the head and making them cry.
Ray’s own spend spills down to his knuckles, his cock throbbing and swelling in his palm as he milks himself dry, using the aid of the extra wetness to stroke until he can’t take it anymore. “Gods! Gods Ancient—”
Gerard hums, their whole body melting in place and going boneless. The cave calms down its movement, everything collapsing inside itself like a flower withering. One tendril pushes inside their ass, like it shouldn’t even be possible, and Gerard doesn’t react, just takes it.
Once the tendril is in, Gerard starts whining, low and constant, like they can’t help it, and a little bit more cum spills out of their cock, weak and almost dry. The tentacle all but licks it clean, swallowing the tip inside itself and bulging with it, before it lets them go with a pop.
Ray reaches for his journal, ripping out an empty page and using the paper to wipe his hand clean, grimacing the whole time.
“Are you taking notes?” Gerard mumbles, voice tired. The tentacles lower them gently to the ground, but don’t fully let go. Instead, they wrap around him even more, all over his body; but their hold is gentler this time, so that Gerard could easily slip out as they pet them all over their body.
The lights have gone green-brown like leaves, like nature back on Ancient Earth that Ray and Gerard are both in love with—like Gerard’s eyes under the sunlight.
“No,” Ray replies, giggling a little hysterically. “Don’t even know what I would write down.”
Gerard smiles, eyelashes fluttering open. Their waterline is wet with tears, and one drop slides down their cheek before being wiped away by a tendril. “Write this: Ten out of ten experience, would recommend.”
“Do you think it’s going to let you go now?” Ray asks, tucking his dick back inside his pants.
“Mhhm,” Gerard hums, nodding. “It’s sated.” As if that doesn’t sound ominous at all.
“Maybe… Maybe I can come get you now? If it’s sated I mean.”
Gerard takes a moment to reply, stretching first and rubbing their wrists which are a bit red from the tentacles’ hold. “I guess so… It’s not going to… want to feed for a while. So you should be fine.”
“Okay,” Ray says, nodding and getting up. “I’ll take Jammy. And I’ll take the portable so I can still see you. In case anything happens.”
“Yeah,” Gerard murmurs. They yawn, putting a hand on their mouth to hide it, as if etiquette can still be a thing between them after what just happened. “It feels like I might fall asleep.”
“You just… I mean, it would make sense for you to be exhausted.” Ray hops over to the portable, transferring the screen over and putting it under his armpit as he picks up his hover cane, trying to activate Jammy.
Gerard doesn’t reply, just hums again, and when Ray looks, he can see them cuddling with the tentacles, looking perfectly content.
“Gods,” he murmurs. “Only you, Gerard…”
He makes his way over to the little hole on the ground, on top of Jammy and swaying from side to side, at risk of falling any second. Jammy was never intended to be used this way but Ray doesn’t even care.
As soon as he is close enough, he can feel it—as easily as he would smell or see something, but for this feeling of satisfaction, happiness; content and safe. It knocks the breath out of his chest.
“Oh,” he breathes out. If this was what Gerard was feeling too… Well, he gets why they wouldn’t feel too threatened. It feels like whatever this creature is, it loves them like one would love a member of their family.
He gets off Jammy, struggling to walk over the uneven ground with his hover cane, which wasn’t built for anything but smooth concrete to be used on, the way it is back home. “Gerard?” He calls out, wiggling inside the small opening the way they had done.
The cave is so much more beautiful in real life, all these details that Ray couldn’t quite make out through the screen… The first being the song the creature is singing, like a little lullaby that helps to make even Ray’s eyelids feel heavy. The lights are so much brighter and natural inside, neon like Ray’s never seen exist in nature so easily on these types of planets, and the tendrils, moving gently like leaves in the breeze.
It even smells sweet, though he can make out the musk of sweat and arousal underneath. In the middle of the pile of tentacles is Gerard, blinking up at Ray and smiling. Their clothes are still off and bunched up around different parts of their body, and they have their notebook in their hands, in the process of writing something down.
“Hi,” they murmur, opening their arms up as if asking for a hug before realizing they still have their shirt off around their shoulders. They laugh, a little embarrassed, and put the notebook down to pull the fabric down. “How awkward is this?”
“Not,” Ray replies, before realizing that’s not a sentence at all. “Not awkward at all.”
Gerard looks flushed still, their hair a little wet, and their eyes shiny bright, brown with pupils blown wide. “Good,” they reply, and start pushing themselves up.
Ray tries to help but they push his hand away. “Your recovery,” they mumble.
It makes Ray laugh until he is gasping for breath. “Gods, Gerard. My recovery?”
They pout, bending down to pull their underwear and pants up in one smooth move, getting a little stuck inside their own coat before Ray helps them put it back on. “Don’t laugh at me,” they say. “I’m still a little out of it.”
Ray pulls them in a hug, feeling the warmth of their small body in his arms, and breathes in deep, feeling some kind of tension finally drain out of him. He presses a kiss to the crown of their head, his arms tightening around them as they hug back, head burying itself on his shoulders.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Ray mumbles, voice a little choked up.
Gerard takes a deep breath before pushing him back. “I’m not high this time,” they say, out of nowhere. “But I… I almost died and I—”
“You said there was no danger,” Ray interrupts before he can stop himself.
They reach out and put a hand on his mouth. “Shh. Listen to me,” they stress, eyes moving all over Ray’s face. “I didn’t know… At the beginning, I mean, before I understood. And all I could think about was you. This is maybe the worst way to admit this but I thought… I thought maybe you would have to watch me die—”
Ray shakes his head desperately. No way he would just watch that. He would have grown wings and flew here if it came down to it.
“I know, I know,” they assure him. “But I… I thought it was so unfair. I should have told you the last time and I didn’t and I was thinking about how stupid I was for hiding it from you. I don’t want to… I don’t want to die without telling you that I’m stupidly in love with you, Ray.”
Ray can only blink, Gerard’s glove-clad palm still pressed up against his lips.
“And I know it’s weird to admit that after… What just happened.” They gesture towards the tentacles still on the ground, wrapped all around themselves, like a cat curled up. “But I can’t wait another lighted moment, okay? I want you to know. It was you. When I got high on that goo and started singing love songs, it was meant for you. It’s been… It’s been you. For a long time.”
Their palm falls away, and they are blushing now, over the bridge of their nose and their cheeks, but they don’t look away.
Ray swallows, his heart thudding so fast inside his chest that the cave reacts to it, the tendrils hovering in the air and moving gently, a belly-dance type thing, from Earth Ancient. The lights have gone brown, such a warm brown that it shines golden on Gerard’s hair, shimmering in the light like something out of this world—any world.
“Is it awkward now?” Gerard asks, starting to sound a bit unsure.
Ray can’t let that happen. “Never,” he replies. “Gerard, I’m so in love with you that I don’t know what to do with myself half the time. It could… It could never be awkward between us. You understand me in a way nothing has before…”
Then he’s moving before Gerard can reply, putting his hands on their jaw and pulling them in so their lips can meet. He can admit that he’s fantasized about this so many times before, in so many different settings, but he could never guess what it would actually feel like.
Gerard’s lips are soft and a little dry, and they tilt their head to the side as they kiss back slowly, humming into Ray’s mouth, a small sound that makes Ray pull them even closer. The cave sings for them, tentacles on the ground shuddering wetly.
They separate like pulling a band-aid off, and Gerard smiles, eyes a little teary again. “Wow,” they breathe out. “That’s the best thing to happen today, and I went through a lot.”
Ray laughs, feeling so stupid because he can’t stop smiling, and he pulls Gerard in, hugging them again, a hand cradling the back of their skull as he wraps his arms around their waist, squeezing tight—he never wants to let go.
The comms device pings three times, making Ray gasp. “ETA 10 clicks,” he says, unsure how to explain this whole thing to anyone, let alone The Office.
Gerard pushes him a little back, biting down on their bottom lip. “We have to get back to the ship and come up with a lie—destroy all our notes so they don’t find it.”
“We… Why?” Ray asks, frowning. “This is the best thing we’ve come across so far.”
Gerard shakes their head. “That’s why,” they explain. “The studies on Terlania are already ending. We can feed The Office anything about the trees, those little fish-fly by the river, but not this,” they gesture towards the cave. “They would want us to bring it back to the base. But it has a pack, I know it. We could help it get back, and then just… Leave them alone. Nobody would find out anyway, nobody but us is coming here to study the environment.”
That’s true enough. Since Terlania has been declared unable to sustain life, all ecologists have lost interest, most of them knowing it is impossible to get a grant to study the plants on a planet where nobody is going to be eating them.
He looks down at the tentacles on the ground, one of them standing up and curled close towards them like it is listening in, and feels his heart clench. “Okay,” he says. “You’re right. Stars, we need to get going then.”
Gerard chuckles breathlessly, leaning in to kiss him some more, until both of them are out of breath. “Let’s go,” they say, grabbing onto Ray’s hand.
They have to get rid of the video—well, maybe they can keep that, if Gerard agrees. They have to come up with a good enough lie. And Ray needs to run a million tests on Gerard to make sure that everything is as okay as it looks. He squeezes Gerard’s hand and feels himself calm down. They can do it together. It’ll be fine.
“Is it going to be okay?” He asks, looking at the creature. The tendrils on the wall wiggle and shift, following them out to the small opening, as if saying goodbye.
Gerard smiles, eyes crinkled in the corners. “Yeah,” they reply, shrugging. “It knows we’re coming back.”